- Instructor: Langdon
- Lectures: 3
- Duration: 15 weeks
In this course we will introduce you to three fundamental perspectives for reasoning with data: critical thinking, inferential thinking, and computational thinking. All three of these perspectives are integral to the data-driven research processes that are common in data science, thus allowing you to learn and practice how you can make and test hypotheses, and construct or deconstruct arguments that are rooted in data.
We will first use public data sets (both curated or scraped) focused on socially-relevant themes (e.g., public health, education, and environment) to model and understand real-world phenomena. We will focus on using model summarization, data visualization, and model-based simulations to interpret and communicate our understanding of these real-world phenomena as well as the potential for bringing these derived models to bear on real-world questions and applications (e.g., comparing different policies).
Particular emphasis will be placed on exposing you to and developing your appreciation for the principles underlying data mining and machine learning methods, including regression, classification and clustering, and the statistical concepts of measurement error and prediction. We will teach you critical concepts and skills in computer programming (Python), linear regression, and statistical inference. We will also delve into dilemmas surrounding data analysis such as balancing individual privacy and social utility.
